Is our national anthem racist?

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand when the national anthem is played has evoked a firestorm of criticism. Kaepernick stated, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.” This columnist supports freedom of speech, which in this case means I support his right to remain seated as well as the right of others to criticize him for doing so.

Kaepernick’s defiance reignited a debate regarding whether racism lurks in the lyrics of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” As Christopher Wilson pointed out in his article “Where’s the Debate on Francis Scott Key’s Slave-Holding Legacy?,” Key in 1814 “was a slaveholding lawyer from an old Maryland plantation family, who thanks to a system of human bondage had grown rich and powerful.” Wilson also noted that, as district attorney for the city of Washington during the 1830s, Key attacked the abolitionist movement. “Key prosecuted a New York doctor living in Georgetown for possessing abolitionist pamphlets,” Wilson wrote.

Is racism embedded in “The Star-Spangled Banner”? Consider these lines from the rarely-sung third verse: “No refuge could save the hireling and slave/From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.” Some historians maintain that “the hireling and the slave” refer to escaped slaves who had allied themselves with the British during the War of 1812.

Vice-Admiral Alexander I.F. Cochrane, who commanded the British North American Station, issued on April 2, 1814 a proclamation stating, “That all those who may be disposed to emigrate from the UNITED STATES will, with their Families, be received on board His Majesty’s Ships or Vessels of War, or at the Military Posts that may be established… when they will have their choice of either entering into His Majesty’s Sea or Land Forces, or of being sent as FREE settlers to the British Possessions in North America or the West Indies.”

The companies of black Colonial Marines formed by the British struck terror and revulsion in the hearts of American troops, who saw them not as soldiers but as armed slaves in rebellion. Key had personal reasons for hating the Colonial Marines. According to a recent article by Dr. Jason Johnson, U.S. Army Lt. Key “ran into a battalion of Colonial Marines” at the Battle of Bladensburg, Maryland just a month before writing “The Star Spangled Banner” and Key’s troops “were taken to the woodshed by the very black folks he disdained.” The British victory at Bladensburg allowed the King’s troops – including those black recruits – to burn the city of Washington. Johnson and other scholars believe that the lines “No refuge could save the hireling and slave/From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave” maliciously depict Colonial Marines fearfully fleeing from battles against white troops or being killed in action.

After the war, the British refused the American demand to return these courageous escaped slaves and their families. “The soldiers were relocated to the British colonies of Nova Scotia, Bermuda, or Trinidad, where each family was given their freedom and sixteen acres of land,” Judy Raymond wrote in her article “The Merikins: heroes of the forgotten war” for “Caribbean Beat.” Descendants of these liberated slaves in Trinidad are known as Merikins because of their origin and last month celebrated “the two-hundredth anniversary of their arrival and of a proud heritage of freedom.”

Should we scrap “The Star-Spangled Banner”? Not unless we’re also prepared to scrap The Declaration of Independence, which was written by a slaveholder named Thomas Jefferson who evidently saw no contradiction between owning other human beings and declaring that “all men are created equal” and possess the rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Slavery is woven into our nation’s history and we must own it.

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John J. Dunphy

Contributing columnist

John J. Dunphy of Godfrey is a writer and poet. He is the author of “Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois” and owns The Second Reading Book Shop in Alton.

John J. Dunphy of Godfrey is a writer and poet. He is the author of “Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois” and owns The Second Reading Book Shop in Alton.